embouchure

American  

[ahm-boo-shoor, ahm-boo-shoor, ahn-boo-shyr] / ˌɑm bʊˈʃʊər, ˈɑm bʊˌʃʊər, ɑ̃ buˈʃür /

noun

embouchures plural

1. the mouth of a river.

2. the opening out of a valley into a plain.

3. Music.

   1. the mouthpiece of a wind instrument.

   2. the adjustment of a player's mouth to such a mouthpiece.

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embouchure British  

/ ˌɒmbʊˈʃʊə /

noun

1. the mouth of a river or valley

2. music

   1. the correct application of the lips and tongue in playing a wind instrument

   2. the mouthpiece of a wind instrument

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• embouchures
  plural

Etymology

Origin of embouchure

1750–60; < French, equivalent to embouch ( er ) to put (an instrument) to one's mouth ( em- em- ¹ + bouche mouth < Latin bucca puffed cheek) + -ure -ure

Explanation

If you play the flute or trumpet, you might know that embouchure refers to the way you put your mouth on the instrument in order to make the proper sound. Sometimes the mouthpiece itself is also called an embouchure. Brass and woodwind instruments are all played by blowing into or across an opening, the embouchure. As a method of playing such instruments, embouchure is a way of holding your mouth-including lips, facial muscles, and teeth. This often involves buzzing your lips against the instrument's mouthpiece. Embouchure is a French word that means "river mouth" (from bouche, "mouth") and it used to actually refer to the mouth of a river.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

embouchure embouchures

Trumpeters need to play all the time because of the embouchure and muscle memory.

From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2025

It’s usually the second one — it at least tells me what kind of strength I have in my embouchure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2020

The embouchure, or position of lips and mouth, necessary to coax musical notes from the horn’s twisted metal is notoriously tricky.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 17, 2020

Other times, Haitz will open up an instrument case to find just a collection of parts, or something jammed into the embouchure hole of a flute.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 3, 2017

Madge and I glide our slides together, reaching for C, back up for F. Sometimes when I see her pinched face in perfect embouchure, I start to giggle.

From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari

His timing is spot on, exaggerating players’ embouchures of the wind instruments he fakes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2017

The coast, as well as the embouchures of the rivers, exhibit a deposit of deep mud, and yet far at sea banks of clean siliceous sand arise.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

It divides the embouchures of the spacious rivers Old Calebar and Del Rey on the west, from the equally important one of the Cameroons on the east.

From Lander's Travels The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa by Huish, Robert

I beat and pound for the dead, I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.

From Leaves of Grass by Whitman, Walt

In a few scattered places there are deep, precipitous ravines, opening to the sea, whose embouchures form difficult but still possible landing-places for the fishermen.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 1 by Whymper, Frederick